New Translations of Squash and Pizza

by Regina Schrambling

on 01/28/13 at 03:00 PM

What I took home the other night from a new tapas place in the neighborhood was not just an especially full kittybag but some inspiration. I really want to like spaghetti squash but always feel as if it lets me down stringily, and now I'm thinking about giving it another roast. And I'm wondering why I haven't made cocas ever since I had to make them repeatedly while developing recipes for a story some years ago. (The answer to that is probably obvious. I could lose interest in foie gras if I had to keep testing. [And, in fact, that once happened.])

The squash was on the Casa Pomona menu with piperrada plus pine nuts and golden raisins, and the concept of a traditional Basque pepper-and-onion sauce over the vegetable version of fideos made me order it. Of course, with that sauce you wouldn't even need the squash, but the combination was pretty sensational. I once thought I was so clever making pasta primavera with spaghetti squash and now am reminded that it adapts to any cuisine. Indian will be next, I think.

As for the cocas, they're basically Catalan pizza, and they're easy to do, with no end of possible toppings, savory and sweet. The one here was paved with sweet onions, sprinkled with rosemary and finished off with bacon. As my consort said: This is like tarte flambée.

Or: Anything can be translated into Spanish. Including over-ordering. We brought home excess chorizo-cheese croquetas and oxtail-stuffed albondigas. . .